Gideons celebrate first Bible

Dozens of Superior locals and members of Gideons International gathered in front of the Wells Fargo Bank in Superior Saturday evening for a ceremony commemorating the first set of bibles donated by the group in 1908.

The Gideons, renowned for the bibles they place in hotel rooms across the world, first decided that they would make it part of their mission to place bibles in hotel rooms in 1908.

The very first set of bibles was donated by Superior Gideon Andy Bailey to the Superior Hotel that same year.

The hotel has since burned and many of the original 25 bibles were lost, but one is on display at the headquarters of the Gideons in Nashville, Tennessee.

Saturday's ceremony celebrated the centennial anniversary of the placement of the bibles and the successful history of the Gideons. Since their mission's humble beginnings in the Superior Hotel, Gideons have arranged for the placement of 1.5 billion bibles in 187 different countries throughout the world.

The ceremony began with words from Superior Mayor Mike Wood, who welcomed the Gideons to Superior and commended them on their mission.

“You do a great thing,” Wood said.

Wood also invited the crowd to come back to Superior any time to enjoy all that the city has to offer, and offered to personally show around anyone who looked him up in the phone book.

Then Jack Hayes, Chairman of Special events for the Gideons, spoke to the crowd. Hayes commented that people had come from as far away as Nashville Tennessee to be part of this celebration and thanked the town of Superior for its hospitality.

He also hailed Neva Cummings, the great granddaughter of Edna Wilkinson, the proprietor of the Superior Hotel in 1908, who was in attendance.

Then Kay Strombo, from the Mineral County Historic Society, spoke to the crowd about the history of the Superior Hotel. She gleaned most of her information from World Progress Administration interviews.

Strombo chronicled the owners of the hotel and the eventual destruction of the building when it burned in 1940. In its place now stands the Wells Fargo Bank, and a strip that contains the Four Aces Bar and Napa Auto Parts.

At the end of the ceremony Perrin Prescott, president of The Gideons International, gave an address and presented the town with a plaque that will forever commemorate the site and what it means to the Gideons and Mineral County.

The Gideons also presented Wood with a bible. Marked in the bible was a passage in Chapter Four of the Book of Mark that reads, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.”

Chuck Evans, of Forsyth Montana, has been a Gideon for 10 years and said that the ceremony was important.

“It's a big deal for the Gideons because we've been doing this for 100 years. It's good to come back and see where it all started,” Evans said after the ceremony.

A man of his word, and always hard at work for his cause, Evans slipped this reporter a pocket-sized copy of the New Testament on his way to the group's bus.